TP-Link - Deco PX50

Yes I used them for years. But then moved to the Deco P9 (mesh power line hybrid) and that's been running great for me ever since. I did briefly purchase the newer Deco PX50 mesh that has power line too but found it absolutely useless compared to the P9. So I returned it and have stuck with the P9.

I had 5 PX50s in a large apartment with concrete walls. The Powerline worked but was disappointing… almost certainly because the wiring isn’t so new, maybe 15 years old. Speeds and connections weren’t stable or consistent. We ended up putting in Ethernet backhaul, which was perfect. I then sold two of the PX50s as we no longer needed them. Incidentally, someone in the same building uses Moca and swears by it. I’ve since switched to new ASUS aiMesh routers as I needed some VPN tunnels for different devices, and even if that wasn’t necessary I wouldn’t go back.

You could also consider Deco PX50, it combines PowerLine and Wifi for its backhaul.

Backhaul is the communication between the Deco unit. If Ethernet is not available, two Deco will attempt to communicate over PowerLine, and over all wifi bands. If two Deco can communicate via several methods, they will simultaneously use those methods. By combining, the Deco can increase the amount of transmitted data, and decrease the latency. XE75 does not use PowerLine. PX50 will be better if data transmits well over PowerLine, and poorly over wifi.

The main Deco must be wired to its source of Internet. I would return the Archer, indeed, and build a mesh only with deco units.

The two Deco needs to communicate together. The quality of that communication will determine the quality of the access of your PC to Internet. Ideally, Deco communicate via Ethernet. I assume this is not an option in your case. If Ethernet is not available, Deco communicate, generally, via wifi. The wifi signal is sensitive to obstacles and to interferences. Hence, in some cases, it helps to complement wifi with PowerLine. Two PX50 Deco will attempt to communicate simultanesously via wifi and via PowerLine. The communication via PowerLine goes via your home power network, and the quality of that communication is influenced by the way your power network is designed, and by interferences on the power lines.

3 Deco meshes in the family, purchased in 2020, 2024 and 2025, all working perfectly.

Tp link px50 is a decent consumer system.

no, some of the modern powerline standards are really good. Look at the TP-Link Deco PX50

Will powerline work in your house? If so I'd get something like TPLink Decos with the powerline backhaul.

it's not, but the decos have it built in and will pick the best signal strength between wireless backhaul and powerline. In the OPs case wired of some kind will be the best option, first would be ethernet, second powerline (provided the wiring is good enough for it)

I have two apartments both are like faraday cages, I have Ubiquiti in one and Deco Powerlines in the other. I'm pretty impressed with the Decos for the prices

I had powerline adapters and recently changed to the deco Wi-Fi mesh system which have powerline backbone connectivity so they can bridge gaps and provide a unified Wi-Fi across the house Really good kit

I have 3 x PX50 I previously had a Wi-Fi extra box from ISP but they wanted to charge monthly for this when renewing so I cancelled that element and bought the set of Decos with powerline backhaul The wire Wi-Fi box was on wired Ethernet as it couldn’t bridge across the solid brick walls/chimney so the PX50 is on wired backhaul to the router and then 1 of the mesh boxes connects to this aft furthest point and the other is closer to main router and connects to that

I want to tack on with my own question: I currently have 2 Deco PX50 units from my provider (Wifi 6) which works pretty well, but I would like to add a WiFi 6E or 7 Deco AP (BE series) with a **wired** backhaul in another room for game streaming purposes. I only care for 6GHz on that single unit - can I add an XE/BE series AP to my existing network without making it the main Deco whilst maintaining the Mesh network and device roaming? (It would be at a remote location in the basement). I know that the wired ethernet backhaul will be limited to 1Gbit and I don't care for wireless backhaul. I still want to maintain the Powerline backhaul for the 2nd PX though (PX<->PX). My current Deco units are already set up in AP mode and only serve as a WiFi mesh, no routing responsibilities.

Thanks for replying! 6E vs. 7 would mainly depend on availability and pricing at the time. Down the stretch, I might want to update the other Decos too to something 2.5Gbit capable for throughput. But in the short term, I just want a short-range AP with low latency on a non congested band down there. I thought about going a different route entirely (eg, Ubiqity), but honestly, the other 2 Decos I already have are performing near flawlessly, and I kinda don't want to mess with that.. they're by far outperforming any expectations I ever had on them.

That's false, I'm already getting decent signal (80Mbps) through that 8 inches concrete mass, using Wifi 6 only. I'm now wondering if I could improve that using Wifi 7.

I just received the Wifi 7 mesh by TP Link (BE9300) and replaced my previous Wifi 6 mesh by TP Link (AX3000) and the difference is... massive. Through that 8 inches concrete mass I used to top at 80Mbps, with the new Wifi 7 mesh I now top at 210Mbps. So yeah there's definitely a noticeable difference !

First off, sorry to hear about the lightning strike — that’s rough, glad at least two units survived. Mixing in Wi-Fi 6E/7 with your existing Wi-Fi 6 Decos won’t really unlock their full potential, since the mesh will still lean on the lowest standard. Unless you plan to replace the whole setup, you won’t see a big jump. If your two current units are still covering fine, the safest move is just adding another Wi-Fi 6 Deco to keep everything consistent. Wi-Fi 7 is great long-term (throughput, latency, efficiency), but right now it’s only worth it if you’re going all-in or already have a bunch of 6E/7 client devices. As for the AX-50 Outdoor — it’s solid for extending coverage outside (yard, patio, garage). It’s basically just a weatherproof Deco, so don’t expect crazy speed boosts compared to indoor nodes, but range is quite decent.

To be fair, if you don't have any WI-FI 7 devices, it's not really necessary (IMHO...), plus, as someone else mentioned, having that dedicated back-haul comes in clutch for mesh networks, going from the original google home hubs to a linksys WH02 system (example, not a recommendation) greatly increased our speeds on anything connected to a node (as long as it was only one hop, there's one way in the back that's two hops, but it's still pretty fast). We actually have the (a) WI-FI 6 deco system now with Gig internet, and we get excellent speeds throughout the house and yard (again, as long as it's only one hop). To answer your question, sorta, tri-band helps enormously, to use an analogy... dual band mesh is like you (your cell phone on wifi say...) trying to make a phone call to your mom (the mesh node), who's on the phone with your brother (the main node/AP), everything you say has to go through your mom to get to your bother, and then back to you, because she can only listen or talk at one time, also she's in a loud shopping mall. With tri band, your mom just holds the phone up to the other phone so you can talk to your brother directly, there's still some overhead and noise (she walked into a hallway or something now), but the information gets through a lot faster. eta: idk a simple walkie talkie VS phone call analogy may have worked better...